A sentence that beautifies lives

It's LIKE NEW LONDON MEETS THE African savannah. A speedboat zips by an offshore lighthouse, while a black panther slinks through tall grasses on land. Giraffes nibble the leaves off trees and seagulls soar over a rock outcropping.
Sitting in the family room at the Covenant Shelter in New London, one can get lost in the giant mural that covers a wall and fills the room with color and light. The longer you look, the more you see: a woman walking a dog, turtles and lizards sunning themselves, snowy egrets and great blue herons fishing.

It's definitely a bright spot in the lives of the 35 mothers and children who live on the first floor of the shelter and spend time in the community room.

Stephen Santangelo, executive director of the city's homeless shelter on Jay Street, says the kids love it. "They're always looking at it and finding new things.''

The mural, signed in the corner WML (and) Friends, is the creation of William "Mac" Love, formerly known as the artist who defaced a submarine.

Last fall, Love tried his hand at protesting the war by changing the color of the submarine-shaped "Submarine Capital of the World" sign off Interstate 95 in Groton to yellow. He painted on a couple of vulgar words and set off a firestorm of debate about supporting the troops and opposing the war. Some saw it as an anti-military statement. It's a tough stance to take in a community that hosts a submarine base and a company that builds submarines.

Love was arrested and charged with first-degree criminal mischief and breach of peace. He was ordered to do 180 hours of community service. Painting the mural was part of his payback.

Love says he's always been a community-service-minded person, even before the yellow submarine debacle. He dishes out food for the homeless and is using his artistic skills to improve the Groton Town skate park. He is also part of the New London Mural Project, which hopes to improve the looks of downtown by painting murals on large outside walls.
He says he has no regrets about painting the submarine yellow.

"The piece had to be done,'' he says. "I learned a ton and all that will benefit me in the future. I hope in time people's opinions of me will change. I'm not just that 'yellow submarine guy.' ''

He says art is not a lofty pursuit reserved for the high-minded. It should provoke and promote creative thinking. It belongs, he says, along the side of the road and inside homeless shelters as much as on gallery and museum walls.
"Everyone has a creative soul and a creative impulse,'' he says. "I believe in the health of art and the role it can play in our daily lives."

Love spent about four or five days a week for three weeks creating the mural at the Covenant Shelter.
"He came in and I said, 'Do something to this wall','' Santangelo says. "The next day he had drawn the entire scene in pencil. It's incredible.''

Love enlisted the help of the 16 kids who were living at the shelter at the time. They would watch out the window, waiting for Love to arrive.

"He was the man,'' says Santangelo. "He was always very kind and patient. Whatever the kids wanted, he put it in.''
Hence, the mural has the front end of a red pickup truck, a dolphin breaking through the water, a monkey in a tree and elephants lurking in the grass. Along a stream that meanders through a meadow, a woman walks her dog on a leash and a man leans against a rock for an afternoon nap.

When Love finished the mural, he brought in his portfolio and offered a painting to hang in the men's community room. They chose a large contemporary of swirling blues and a burst of yellow.

"Hopefully this will outlive the bad,'' Santangelo says of Love's work.
As for Love, he says he will continue to express his opinions through art, but he'll try not to get arrested.
This is the opinion of Kathleen Edgecomb.